The Woman in The Red Dress
by LordMaster6
Summary: During the course of an undercover drug operation, DEA Special Agent Jake Peralta makes a bet with his CIA partner in red, if he can learn her real name by the time they bring down the Cortez Cartel, she'll go on a real date with him.
1. Chapter 1

It's not insanely busy inside the club, but there's enough people there that she has to stop at the top of the stairs and actively search to spot him. After a moment she spots the top his head, deep down a part of her really wants to run a comb through his messy brown hair.

She bites her lip, her habit when her neuroses start to surface during work. As she starts down the stairs the crowds seem to part before her, it's not surprising, she's very hard to ignore. The deep red satin gown clings to her like a second skin, with each step her left leg breaks through the thigh high split, giving the entire club a good look at her long dark legs, she's suddenly glad Gina forced her to get that pedicure and waxing treatment the other day. Because the looks she's getting right now make her feel invincible.

She crosses the dance floor, waving off the two men who entreat her to dance. The man he's speaking with spots her before he does, she ignores his beady eyed stare and that of his bodyguards flanking the booth.

Her target is prattling on, as is his usual. She resists the urge to roll her eyes, and instead runs a hand over his shoulder. She smirks when he falls silent and looks up at her.

'Why haven't you asked me to dance yet?' she demands.

His face lights up and he grins at the sight of her. He spares a brief moment to excuse himself from the table, before he takes her hand from his shoulder and spins her out onto the dance floor. He always makes her look good.

'My, my. Fancy running into you here.' He remarks when they're far enough away from his friends to not be overheard. He runs a hand over her shoulder, his fingertips skim across the edge of the skin exposed by her backless dress, before the hand comes to a rest at her waist.

'Yeah, good news and bad news. The government's decided to part with some cash to fund your little undercover op.' she tells him, her hands grips at the collar of his shirt as she almost loses her footing, she curses herself, she's always been terrible dancer. But seeing him for the first time in months, with the music swelling in the background, she lost her head for a moment.

'The bad news?' he pants, pulling her body against his to keep them upright, his lips are close enough to the base of her throat that he can almost taste the hint of her perfume on his tongue.

'They still don't trust you with their money.' She tells him, he scowls and spins her out.

'You buy one measly Gulfstream, and suddenly everyone thinks you have a shopping addiction…' he mutters after she spins back into his arms. Her back collides with his chest, after a moment his hands come to rest on her hips, holding her close.

'I've been brought in to hold the purse strings. This is now a multi-agency operation.' She continues, twisting in his arms. He doesn't step back, which causes a spark of static to jump between her satin dress and his shirt.

'What? Who else has joined the party?' he asks as they step back, she has to look down to keep up with his feet.

'Well since we're on US soil it was decided that the FBI is going to oversee, they've assigned a Deputy Chief.'

'Oh, fantastic.'

'Jake-'

'No, don't. This is just so fucking typical, I do all the hard work with the Cartel, build a working relationship. Now some over starched suit from the Feds is going to come in with his dumbass rulebook and find a way to ruin it, and I'm going to get blamed because I'm the point man.'

'Jake!'

'What?' he snaps back, she rolls her eyes and taps the pendant on her chest, he winces. 'Wire?' he mouths, she nods and can't help grinning as his face falls.

'Say hello to Deputy Chief Holt.'

'No time, the song's ending.' Jake spins her and she stumbles in her heels, but Jake catches her at the last moment, somehow he manages to make it seem intentional. He pulls her back to her feet and leads her off the dance floor.

'Wonderful. Introduce me to your friend.' The beady eyed man declares, eyeing her like a piece of meat.

'Cynthia Gutierrez.' She supplies, offering her hand. She doesn't quite disguise her disgust, but it all plays into the cover.

'Also known as the money. Miss Gutierrez has a number of clients who're looking to invest in your company, I'm helping her find sound investment opportunities.' Jake explains with a grin.

'Well let me assure you Miss Gutierrez, that Cortez Industries is as sound as they come. Why, we practically have an army on hand to protect your investments.' They all laughed, even though everyone knew it to be the literal truth.

'How terribly amusing, introduce me to your friend Jake.'

'Marcos Delgado, it is my absolute pleasure to meet you.' The beady eyed man offered, pressing his wet lips to her hand. She grimaced at Jake until her hand is returned.

* * *

The remainder of the night is spent drinking and indulging in small talk, Marcos brushes off Jake's attempts to engage in business talk. For her part she remains stuck to Jake's side to avert Marcos' wandering hands.

As the club closes Jake leads her out to his vintage Mustang, Marcos farewells them at the door as they promise to meet him for lunch in two days' time. As Jake takes off, she removes the wired necklace and stuffs it into the glove box.

'Well that was a bust.'

'Are you kidding? He's half in love with you, but who wouldn't be with that dress, Cynthia.' Jake smirks, eyeing her as he rolls to a stop at the next intersection. 'When do you have to check in with the chief next?'

'He's not expecting me until dawn.'

'Great, that gives us… two hours.'

'Good thing we'll only need twenty minutes.' She remarks dryly, Jake scowls.

'Just you wait.'

* * *

As the sun peeks over the horizon she flops back onto the pillows, sweat soaked, exhausted but thoroughly pleased. After a moment Jake crawls up and falls onto the pillows next to her with a tired groan. She sighs and looks around the room, across which the remains of his suit and her dress are strewn.

'We're going to be late for the Deputy Chief's meeting.' She remarks.

Jake chuckles. 'No! We've got… five whole minutes.'

'Like you care either way. I really wanted to make a good impression on this guy.'

'You looking for a new job? Tired of the good old CIA? I'd be happy to put a good word in for you with the DEA.'

'And get me blacklisted from there for life? No thanks.' She smirks at his put out expression. 'Holt's a legend in the intelligence community, he's totally straight laced but still manages to nail his targets. He'd be a great mentor for me, to combat your bad influence.'

'Yeah, ok.' Jake rolls onto his back. 'How about we both just agree to try make a good impression this afternoon? Neither of us are going anywhere this morning.'

'You're so full of yourself Jake.' She mutters as she sits up, looking around for any sign of her underwear.

'Well I do get the job done too, Cynthia.' Jake surreptitiously tucks her panties deeper underneath the pillow as she frowns. 'I still can't believe that we're starting our third stint undercover together and I still don't know your real name.'

'You never will.' She scoffs.

'Please, the only reason I don't already know it is that I haven't tried to look for it. I could find your real name in a heartbeat.' Jake boasts, he grins as he spots the frown lines on her forehead as she looks around the room, trying to piece together the last two hours.

'Unlikely.'

'Care to put your money where your mouth is?' he asks with a grin he pulls out her panties and waves them in front of her. She rolls her eyes and snatches them from his hands.

'I would, if you had any money to pay me with.' She snaps as she pulls on the black panties.

Jake concedes on that point, 'Okay, something besides money.'

'Yeah, what did you have in mind?' she asks as she straightens out her dress, Jake pretends to think as he watches her sight her way back into the red satin.

'If I find your real identity by the time this op is finished-'

'On your own, no getting Gina to hack the Agency.'

'If I find it on my own, you will agree to go out to dinner with me, for real. No drug lords present. Sex afterwards is optional but highly encouraged.' He says with a smirk, she rolls her eyes as she sits down to put on her heels.

She thinks about it for a moment, before smiling. 'Okay, but when I win, I get your dumb car and the secret stash of files under the spare wheel that you think I don't know about.'

'That's my life's work!'

'Yeah, so you'd better fucking win, Peralta.' She warns him with a grin, offering him her hand. After a moment he smiles and takes it.

'Deal. Don't you worry, I'll win. Then we'll both get what we want.' Jake promises her, she just rolls her eyes and marches out of the hotel room. Jake thinks about following her to the meeting, but he figures Holt probably already has a terrible opinion of him, so he rolls over and falls asleep instead.

**This is unfinished and I'll be posting as I write it, but I have a good idea of where this is going. Hope you like it.**


	2. Chapter 2

Operational headquarters was located in a tiny flat above a massage parlour. The smell of the incense follows her as she knocks on the door. Footsteps approach the door, but just as she expects the door to open there's a crash and a thud on the other side. After a moment the door opens to reveal Charles Boyle and an upended box of files.

'Still on desk duty, Boyle?' she asks, kneeling down to help him collect the files.

'Well I haven't been shot at my desk yet, so there's that.'

'Always a good upside.' She says brightly as they stuff the last of the files into the box. She follows him out of the hallway into the open plan living area where everything was set up. Gina has her heels propped up on the desk next to her keyboard as she files her nails. In the corner her own partner sits cleaning out her rifle.

'Where's Peralta?' Terry asks, appearing from behind the kitchen counter.

'Why would I know where he is? I'm not his keeper.' She's well aware that her voice has gone up an octave and in pace. At least she manages to avoid blushing, but it's still enough to get the entire room of agents to drop what they're doing and stare at her.

'Damn, Gutierrez. How are you such a terrible liar?' her own partner asks, disappointed.

'I'm a great liar, Diaz.' She insists. 'Only I have to be on the job, we've covered this before.'

'Back to my question?' Terry insists as he pours milk into his cereal.

'Peralta will be in this afternoon.' She concedes with a sigh, taking a seat at the table next to Diaz.

Diaz leans over. 'Again? What do you see in that guy?'

'Nothing, he's really super annoying.'

'That's what does it for you? Super annoying.'

'It was your idea Rosa, remember? You said casual sex is the best way to get over a break up.'

'With a _stranger_.' Rosa retorts, slamming the bolt home in her gun with a satisfied grunt.

'He doesn't even know my name, so it's sort of like we're strangers.'

'No one knows your name, you weirdo.'

'It's my process, okay? It's easier to respond to Cynthia Gutierrez if no one's calling me-' she falls silent, Jake stops in the doorway and sighs.

'Oh _man_, so damn close.'

'I thought you weren't coming in this morning.' she asks, Jake grins and she rolls her eyes because she just knows that his head is full of innuendoes at that moment.

'Changed my mind.' Jake shrugs and takes a seat at the table, he takes a long sip from his Starbucks and looks around. 'So where's the Chief?'

'On a call with the bosses in DC.' Boyle explains, dumping his files onto the table as he takes the seat next to Jake.

'I bet his tie matches his boxers, dare you to ask him if they do Cynthia.' Jake says, smirking at her. She sighs and gestures at the Chief standing behind Jake. Jake glances over his shoulder and winces. 'Deputy Chief Holt, so glad to have you here with us.'

'I can tell. Can you repeat what you just said?'

'Uh, I asked where you were.'

'And then you dared your partner to ask if my tie matched my boxers.'

'I think I might have said that, I don't know.' Jake laughs and gives a shrug.

'How about you ask me that question directly, Special Agent Peralta.'

'Really?' Jake stares at the Chief, trying to read the man's face and figure out where this is going, but he gets nothing. 'Chief Holt, does your tie match your boxers?'

'That's a very inappropriate thing to ask your new commanding officer. Sit down and start the briefing.'

'Yes, sir!' Jake all but falls into the chair as Boyle hands him a file, he opens it up and places Marcos Delgado's passport photo in the middle of the table. 'This is Marcos Delgado. Officially speaking he's not associated with the Cortez Cartel, he's got a clean record and an MBA from Stanford. But his mother was Juan Cortez's favourite sister and he's Marcos' Godfather, so he's got the drug lord pedigree. In the last five years he's built up Cortez Industries, they have a legal business importing a bunch of stuff in from South America, but we're pretty sure he used Cartel drug money to start the business, and he's probably laundering or smuggling drugs in too.'

'But you have no actual evidence against Delgado?'

'Boyle has half a paper trail, but we need his account numbers to make a conviction.' Jake continues. 'So all we need to do is convince Marcos that Cynthia and I are legitimate dirtbags so he'll take our money and show us where he's keeping his.'

'Okay. Special Agent Jeffords, a word.' Holt departs the table without another word, Terry scowls at Jake as he follows.

Holt leads Terry into the bedroom which has been set up like an interrogation room, complete with one chair and brackets on the walls for the cuffs. 'Now that we have the time, tell me about your team, Jeffords.'

Terry pulls out his phone and brings up a mug shot of Gina. 'Gina Linetti, used to hack the CIA for laughs, everyone thought she was small fry until she stole fifty million dollars from their wet works fund. They still haven't found the money. She's being made to work for us until she returns the money, or they find it themselves. Gina can't be left alone with a computer, and has to remain in the presence of an armed agent at all times.'

'Charles Boyle. I'll be frank and admit that he's a terrible undercover operative, can't lie at all. But he's a grinder, has the patience for paperwork that some of the others lack.'

'I see.'

'The other two are CIA, but we've worked with them twice before. Rosa Diaz is a competent undercover operative, but primarily she's the team's sharpshooter, she also used to be a one woman exfil team.'

'Used to?'

'The Agency was concerned that she was beginning to enjoy all the killing, so they moved her to counterinsurgency.' Jeffords gives a shrug. 'They tell me she's stable.'

'And her partner?'

'Cynthia Gutierrez.'

'I thought that name was a cover.'

'It is, but part of her methodology is to live only by her cover names, no one knows her real name. She's very good, ambitious, dedicated to the job.'

'Very well. So what can you tell me about Jake Peralta, aside from the fact that he doesn't like the FBI, or authority.'

'It's better for everyone that he spends as much time in the field as possible.' Terry starts, Holt cocks an eyebrow and Terry continues, 'Jake is a great undercover operative, because he's a pathological liar and loves finding people's secrets. Good things when he's undercover, but when he's not on assignment he gets to be a problem.'

'Interesting team you have here.'

'My therapist says I should retire.'

'Why don't you?'

'My wife and I just had twins, have you seen how much college costs these days?'

* * *

**So this chapter is short and nothing really happens, but it's mostly here to be informative. The action starts up next chapter. I'm having issues with my idea to have Amy live under her cover names all the time. I used a lot of "she" in the first chapter, but it just sounds crappy. So I think I'll just use Cynthia until the Bet's over.**  
**I'd really appreciate any thoughts you guys have about the fake name and she. Now that I've explained why Jake doesn't know hers but she knows his.**  
**I kinda do wonder what he calls her during sex though, since he's known her by three different cover names. lol.**


	3. Chapter 3

'What the fuck is wrong with you?' Cynthia snaps, slamming the door of the car closed.

'Hey! Watch it with the car, she's a little past her prime.' Jake frowns at her reproachfully, closing his door in a much more measured way to make his point. She just rolls her eyes.

'Who cares about the car? You just tanked the entire op back there. Pissing off the mark like that? Such a dumb move.'

'You think I should have kept my mouth shut?'

'Yes!'

'Maybe puckered it a bit, to help with the ass kissing?'

'There's no need to be vulgar about it, but yes.'

'No, I have to disagree with you on this. Our covers are as wealthy investors. Or yours is. I'm just your lackey, slash arm candy. Delgado's meant to be kissing your ass. Certainly no investor is going to invest in a company after the CEO talks like that to her.'

'Maybe in the real world it works that way. But Delgado is a Cartel money launderer, he doesn't actually need ours.' She growls under her breath and slams a fist into the door next to her.

* * *

Back at the apartment she marches right past the door and Jake, taking the rest of the stairs up onto the roof. She circles the fire escape to get out of the wind before lighting up. Her first deep cover assignment had been a chain smoker, her usage has cut down dramatically since those days, but she's never been able to kick the habit entirely.

As the hot smoke fills her lungs, she mulls the events of the disastrous business lunch over in her mind, wondering what possessed Jake to fuck up so badly.

Okay, no. She's smart enough to have an idea of why Jake did it, she's just really hoping that she's wrong. Her mind keeps replaying their first night together, in between teasing kisses and soft touches he'd stopped and made her promise not to let their dalliance compromise her emotionally. She'd laughed at him and the faux serious expression on his face.

Now it feels like the universe is laughing at her.

* * *

When she gets back down to the apartment, the rest of the team is clearly finishing up of some kind of crisis meeting to try and determine how to save the op. She ignores Jake and turns to her partner instead. Rosa's looking as grim as ever.

'Peralta, Gutierrez, follow me.' Holt orders, she sighs and follows the Chief into the interrogation room. Holt takes a seat, he waits until Jake's closed the door before he starts to speak. 'I know your agencies both have different rules about inter office relationships, but I'm going to intervene now. Today was terrible, to put it mildly.'

'Sir-'

'This isn't a conversation, Special Agent.' Holt says, cutting her off. 'I can't order you to keep it professional, but if you can't make that happen on the job then I will dismiss you both from this assignment. You two have exemplary records, but that will change.'

'Don't worry sir, things are going to be very professional from now on.' She promises, shooting Jake a dirty look. He has the temerity to look pissed off by it all.

'Good. We're going to have to change the plan. Even if we can't build a case to prosecute Delgado, we can still work to destabilise his operation. You two are going to run some raids, seize as much Cortez dope as it takes to get them worried.'

'Chief, we're covert ops, not tactical.' Jake protests, Holt shrugs and brushes past him. As he leaves Cynthia swings an arm out and whacks his side. 'What was that for?'

'So many reasons, but mostly because your screw-up today is the reason we're doing raids.'

'Delgado called you a bitch, and I'm in trouble for telling him to take it back?'

'Jesus Christ! Jake, I've lost count of how many men have called me a bitch, or a whore, or a slut. If I cared what a fucking drug dealer thought of me, I'd have quit in my first week.'

'I'm sorry but-'

'Do you think I'm that fragile, or that I can't look out for myself? I thought we were equals, partners.'

'We are-'

'No, Jake. I don't want to hear it. I'm going to change.'

'Wait …' but it's too late, she's slammed the door in his face.

* * *

They're at opposite ends of a city block, waiting for the pizzeria to close but he can still feel her anger through the silence of the comms channel. Usually Jake would keep his end alive by giving the few people out on the street fake names and tragic backstories. But the thought that she's holding a high powered rifle and is very, very angry with him right now is enough for him to just shut it.

After another hour of silent waiting, the owner and his two employees, two rather large Mexican men with gun shaped bulges underneath their shirts lock up. Before they leave, two more men with guns pull up on a second car and disappear into the closed pizzeria.

'I've got two men armed with MP5's, what do the thermals say?' Jake mutters into his comms, glancing up to the rooftop where Boyle stands with the thermal camera.

'Two people, but the pizza oven's still warm so if there was someone else standing in front of it, I couldn't tell you.'

'There isn't.' Rosa replies.

'How can you tell?' Boyle asks, surprised.

'Because I can see the oven through the front window, there's no one standing in front of it.' Rosa snaps back, exasperated.

'Are we going to raid this joint anytime soon?' Cynthia demands.

'I'll take the front, you two can cover the backdoor.' Rosa announces. 'I don't want to be near either of you right now.'

The change in plans means that Jake has to quickly jog around the block to join her at the mouth of the alley connecting the back of the shop to the street.

'You go high.' She tells him, her voice curt and her eyes looking anywhere but in his direction. Jake sighs and raises his sights as they move in tandem down the alley until they're flanking the rear door. Jake presses a small explosive device to the door lock and clicks his radio twice to let Rosa know they're in position, she clicks back once in reply. They wait in silence for Rosa to make her move.

They don't need the radio signal to tell them that she's breached the front of the store, the noise and light of the flash bang reach them from the back of the store. Jake blows the lock on the door, which flies inward from the blast. They find themselves in a narrow and cramped hallway, the only light filters through from an opened door ahead of them, the room they're told the drugs are stashed in.

Cynthia takes the lead from him while he's looking for either of the men, moving for the door with anger converted to purpose. She pushes the door open with the muzzle of her gun, as she does he spots the glint of a gun barrel. His reaction times in simulation have never been great, but today he moves fast enough to blow the course record, he drops his gun and grabs the back of her vest, pulling her clear of the door as the MP5 fires. As he falls backwards with her body on top of him, he weirdly thinks about how the owner isn't getting his bond back.

She rolls off of him with a grunted thanks, they move back as the fire starts to shred the thin drywall between them and the shooter. After a few feet the bullets start to fall well clear, so they stand and pull up their guns up. At the other end of the hallway Rosa appears, she signals that one of the men is down. The firing has stopped, they hear the sound of a magazine being changed.

'Gina, cut the power on my mark.' Rosa orders under her breath.

'This is the DEA, we have you surrounded, so do us all a favour and come out with your hands up.' Jake calls, the man responds by firing a burst in their direction, but the bullets fall short. As the firing stops they all hear a few hurried words in Spanish, followed by a reply.

'There's two of them.' Jake mutters into the radio. Rosa just rolls her eyes and tells Gina to cut the power. As soon as the lights cut out, Rosa moves. From where he's standing Jake can't see what's happening inside the room. After a moment there's a cry and a short burst of gunfire that cuts off with a thud. The second man comes running out of the room and straight towards them, he's dropped his gun and his eyes betray his naked fear.

Cynthia steps forward and slams the butt of her gun into his gut, she follows it up by sweeping his legs out from under him. Jake kneels down to cuff the guy as Rosa tell Gina to restore the power. They enter the room to find Rosa standing over an unconscious body and surrounded by hundreds of keys of cocaine.

'Bring in the clean-up crew Boyle, this one's secure.' Jake announces over the radio.

That night they hit three more warehouses full of cocaine. By the time dawn comes, they've managed to confiscate several tons of cocaine and have arrested fifteen cartel soldiers. Jake knows that even if the numbers sound good, the fact is that their haul is a fraction of the product the cartel has smuggled into the country this year. He hopes it's enough to get Holt's plan working.

Back in his hotel room after he's showered, Jake flops onto the bed, utterly exhausted. As he drifts off to sleep, he tells himself that he definitely does not miss sharing his space. Nope, he's not lonely at all.

* * *

Jake's the last one to arrive for the afternoon briefing, which surprises no one. He takes the last available seat next to Boyle as Holt tells Gina to start. She plays them a handful of recordings from phone taps that suggest the Cartel is wondering why the DEA is suddenly raiding all their supplies, as well as a general order to beef up security on another seven warehouses in the LA county area.

Gina has managed to use the phone taps to trace a number of cartel members and has likely locations for four more of the warehouses. 'So we'll be hitting those tonight?' Jake asks somewhat unnecessarily, but the weirdly businesslike atmosphere in the briefing is disturbing him.

'Yes, but first you're going to meet with Delgado.' Holt replies.

'That's probably not going to go well.' Jake suggests. 'I doubt he wants to see me right now.'

'I don't need you to make nice with him, I just need you to meet with him for five minutes, out of earshot of his cartel heavies. Cynthia here will take some shots of you.'

'Wait… you're planning on leaking my identity to the cartel.' Jake says, horrified at his realisation.

'Yes, and that will mark Delgado as a snitch by association.' Holt continues, as if it were obvious. Gina circles the table and hands him the phone belonging to his current cover.

'For what it's worth, I hope the Cartel doesn't kill you.' Gina tell him, patting his shoulder like he's already a dead man.

**The name thing will be resolved next chapter because it's bothing me a lot, I keep writing Amy instead of Cynthia.**


End file.
